US race protest city on edge again after police shot

The troubled US community of Ferguson, Missouri, scene of months of protests and racial tension, was on a knife edge again on March 12 after two police officers were shot.
      
Police launched a manhunt, raiding a brick bungalow four blocks from the Ferguson police station and municipal court where the shooting occurred amid a late-night demonstration Wednesday.
      
Three people were taken in for questioning, but not arrested, St Louis news media reported, as a $10,000 reward was posted for information leading to the shooter.
      
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder were quick to denounce the "ambush," which threatened to derail efforts to calm nerves in the mainly African-American suburb of 21,000.
      
Speaking on a late night TV talk show, Obama said the shooting was inexcusable and detracted from people who demonstrate peacefully against mistreatment by police.
      
"They're criminals. They need to be arrested," the president said.
      
"And then what we need to do is to make sure that like-minded, good-spirited people on both sides -- law enforcement who have a terrifically tough job, and people understandably don't want to be stopped and harassed just because of their race, but were able to work together to come up with some answers," Obama added.
      
Last year, rioting erupted in Ferguson and protests spread to several US cities after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager, igniting a fierce national debate about race and law enforcement.
      
Then last week, Holder's Justice Department said investigators had found evidence of deep-seated institutional racism in the city's government and in the overwhelmingly white police force.